Herb Garden Designs

As we have already seen in previous articles, herb plants can be grown inside or outside your home thus providing you with fresh flavorful herbs all year round. Having these wonderful plants surrounding us deserves a aesthetic arrangements so lets have a look at herb garden designs.

It isn’t necessary to grow herbs in their own garden. Various herbs can be arranged anywhere in already existing beds and borders complementing flowers and plants. You may prefer to contain certain herbs by themselves such for easy harvesting or if you need to grow large quantities. Certain herbs can be rampant and that many spread by seed and runners. A small 4×4 small garden can be a lot of work as a knot garden might exercise your patience. A well organized, larger garden can be a remarkable experience. Here are some good ideas on how to create a beautiful and practical herb garden.

Start with a sunny spot in your yard that is near the kitchen, so that when cooking you can easily step out to collect the needed herbs to use immediately fresh out of the garden, literally. If the herbs that you’ll be growing in large quantity to harvest and dry at the end of the season then you can use an area anywhere in the yard.

The area for your garden should occupy accordingly to the quantities you plan on growing. Culinary herbs might not take much space since you cut only what you need , in that instance a few plant should be enough to see you through the season so you may want to consider this when thinking up culinary herb garden designs. Space is more dependent on how many different herbs you want to grow and how many of the herbs are perennial. If you are growing for all year use and plan to dry and freeze, you will want more plant.

Another herb garden plans to consider is that if you are growing certain herbs for potpourri or dyes, you will need a much larger space. Lastly, will the garden be exclusively for herbs or will you be inter-planting that space with other plants or vegetables.

Basic herb garden design ideas to start you off
It is important to plan the distribution of you herbs from the beginning. When growing, various herbs will take different forms. Some herbs grows thick but short in height while others are long and lean. Certain herbs have the tendency to grow and crawl about and can even behave like vine does. This unstructured mixture can seem totally out of control especially during their peak season of May through June.

Simple geometric forms such as square, triangles, circles or half-circles are a great way to begin a structure to bed these ”wild” herbs, You can even try putting forms together such as a triangle inside a round shape or a large pie chart type of structure the dividing lines being pathways, Paths are often paved with bricks, stones or even old wood adding a four-season look to the finished garden. Perhaps a central figure, a birdbath or a sundial will add dimension and depth to the overall look. A few well placed lights can add a dramatic effect in the evening.

A herb garden layout can also be based on theme, it can be based on color, scent and even variations of a particular herb. Some gardeners will prefer to keep the perennial herb apart from the annuals. Same as with a flower garden, perennials spread and develop with time. Open spaces can be filled every new season with annuals, just be careful not to disturb the soil near the perennial plants.

Herbs and vegetables
Certain herds growing along vegetables are very well suited. Some even tends to flavor the surrounding veggies adding their taste to them as they grow. They can be harvested for immediate use as you get a few vegetables for the meal you are preparing. Annual herbs like basil, coriander and dill are very popular herbs grown with vegetables.

Herbs and flowers
Certain herbs are very attractive and are an welcome addition to any flower garden. Lavender will give a flower garden a stunning effect and herbs like monarda and calendula can be considered ornamental since they are seldom used otherwise. Culinary herbs such as dill and borage will look great in a cottage style garden where they can be left to self-seed with abandon.

An advantage to adding your herbs in the vegetable or flower garden is that many herbs attract ”good” insects that can help in overall pest control, though beneficial, you may have to sacrifice some of the herb plants.

Designing yourself a herb garden is a simple task that you can put together on paper first. Just start by doodling different arrangements of assorted shapes until you have a few good ideas to work with or if you prefer, you can “google” search terms such as free herb garden designs or be more specific with details as herb garden designs for hillsides if it is the case.

If you don’t have it already, get yourself a small geometry kit at your local dollar store. Draw the basic bird’s view shape of your yard or area the garden will be to have a good idea of the surroundings you are working in. Using the geometric forms (ruler, triangle, compass…) draw different layouts the garden until you get a satisfactory design. Consider the paths throughout the garden for easy access and you might like to add color to give your design more realism and help you sort out the color scheme.

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